Chronicle Editor
Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Reporter
FIVE years after the country attained independence, self-confidence among black people started to arise.
For creatives, their art became one of the most sought-after products of edutainment locally and abroad. This pushed many people to group themselves and create various arts outfits.
This was the case in relation to the formation of Sunduza Dance Theatre in 1985 and was then called the High Stars Sunduza Boys.
The group came to a fruitful formation through a play called Injabulo, their first full-stage production that led to their breakthrough.
Injabulo followed the story of a young man growing up in his rural area and relocating to South Africa to find work in the mines although he dreamt of becoming a musician.
The original cast of the show had Simon Banda who was strongly supported by Elijah Mbambo, Misheck Moyo and the late Alec Ncube.
Baphi Fafaza Mdladla and Khalipani Ndlovu continue to delight having been with the group since the first tour in 1992.
The group after their first UK tour, roped in women. It changed its focus from performing purely a-cappella concerts to full musical dance theatre.
Sadly, there was a long break in full touring after 2002 while a huge school programme was developed in Yorkshire (UK).
Week-long workshops steered by the late Simon Banda and late Mandla Sibanda simply created unstoppable careers for most of the group’s members.
Charles Mahlaba Banda has been leading the group in reviving his father’s older songs and introducing some exciting new repertoire.
Wonderful songs such as Imali, Nompilo, Sinikiwe, and Istimela have wowed people from London to Singapore and as far as Vancouver.
The group has also revived several productions in the last few years to reach an international level of competence.
These include Voices from the Rocks – the Story of the Matopos and the Adventures of Robert Moffat.
To honour the group, Saturday Leisure caught up with the longest-serving members Mdladla and Ndlovu who narrated their three-decade journey with one of the country’s most-celebrated dance and theatre groups.
The longest serving member, Mdladla, who joined the group in 1989 said he rose through the structures to make it to the first team.
“I joined Sunduza juniors in 1989 and stayed for one year before joining the senior team in 1990 when we toured England, Singapore, and Canada.
In 1995, we formed Abanqobi musical company, a baby project of Sunduza with Elijah Mbambo and Simon Banda.
In 2003, I joined the Hlalanathi community theatre project in South Africa which was in partnership with Hillbrow Berea regeneration initiative and Metropolitan council.
“Here, we toured Swaziland and performed at the ibumba festival (Zimbabwe) and The Market Theatre (SA) before we came back to work with Sunduza in 2010,” Mdladla said.
He said being part of the group has been thrilling.
“The journey has been very exciting and more of an experience, especially when we did an advert for Singapore Airways.
The article that was run by a news outlet in Edinburgh said ‘Forget Michael Jackson, he’s got nothing on Sunduza’, still rings in my head. We had performed pantsula and break dance on the advert and it was a bomber,” he said.
Mdladla said watching the group grow, learning about different cultures and the food experience during their numerous travels has been awesome.
“There are a lot of memories as the group now has a third generation. There’s been huge growth.
Community engagement has made us who we are and the best experience was coming from Emadonkini (Pumula suburb),” said Mdladla.
Ndlovu on the other hand said he started his professional career in 1997 before jumping on the Sunduza boat five years later.
“My journey in arts began in 1997 when I joined the Amabhubesi group in Bulawayo. In 2001, I moved to Sunduza Dance Theatre.
We managed to tour Europe including Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Scotland and Switzerland.
“We had many shows around Zimbabwe. In 2005 I trained pupils from different schools around Bulawayo during the Jikinya festival.
We were given a chance to perform at Eastern Cape and the Grahamstown Festival in 2017 and 2018 respectively,” said Ndlovu.
He said the journey has been quite amazing although they have been dealt a big blow by natural disasters.
“Unfortunately, the Covid-19 virus hit in 2019 which forced us to restrict ourselves to staging local shows.
We were nominated as the best Traditional (Ezomdabu/Imbube) group at the Zimbabwe Music Awards,” said Ndlovu.
He said touring different places and performing in front of huge audiences was an experience he treasures.
“I learnt how to stage three or four shows in a day in big theatres and what I discovered is that people overseas support art more than here,” said Ndlovu
He encouraged parents to be supportive of their children’s career choices saying lack of support has been hampering most youngsters’ talent. – @mthabisi_mthire.
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